


Drunken Shenanigans

by fragments_and_pieces



Category: Fantastic Four (2015), Fantastic Four (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-10-05
Packaged: 2018-04-15 14:56:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4610940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragments_and_pieces/pseuds/fragments_and_pieces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reed gets weird ideas when he's drunk. Ben wonders why he goes along with them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Human Slingshot

“Ben, _Ben,”_ Reed says loudly as he skids into Ben's room, almost tripping over himself. He's got a stupid grin on his face, and Ben can immediately tell that he's tipsy, if not drunk.

“Have you been drinking?”

“No. Yes. Not important.” Reed waves a hand. “I have an idea.”

Ben thinks he might be raising an eyebrow if he had any. He doesn't like the gleam in his friend's eyes. “And what would that be?”

“Okay, okay.” Reed steps closer. “My arms – they stretch, right?” He stares expectantly at Ben, and continues when he nods. “Human slingshot,” he says, then crosses his arms and leans back, grinning smugly and looking as though he'd thought of the coolest thing in the world.

“No.”

“Wha- _Ben!”_

“No,” Ben repeats.

“Ben, c'mon. It'll be so cool!”

“No, Reed.” Ben crosses his arms and looks away, because he knows Reed is going to start pouting and whining, and it's a lot harder to resist him like that.

“Be-en,” Reed groans, dragging out Ben's name. “Johnny can fly, it's fine!”

“Reed-”

“Please?” he asks, sounding hopeful, and Ben doesn't need to look to know that Reed's pulled out the puppy-eyes. He makes it clear that he's not going to look, going as far as to turn away completely.

He sighs when he feels Reed clambering onto his back, and then Reed's face is directly in front of his, pout and all. “Please, Ben?”

There's a weird staring contest between them for a full minute. Reed doesn't seem to be giving up any time soon, so Ben figures it might be best to just get it out of the way now. “Fine,” he finally says, “fine. We'll do your little stunt.”

“Yes!” Reed cheers, planting a sloppy kiss on Ben's nose which prompts Ben to shake him off. Once Reed has his feet back on the ground, he just stands there, grinning up at Ben. Ben just shakes his head and rolls his eyes, but can't help the small smile that makes its way to his face. Reed grabs his arm and pulls him to the lab.

Johnny's there waiting for them, and he slings and arm around Reed's shoulders as they walk towards him. “Have I told you that you're a genius lately?” he asks, ruffling Reed's hair.

“You just did,” Reed answers, ducking away from Johnny with a laugh. “Ready?” He looks to Ben and then Johnny, and Johnny's grin nearly matches the one on Reed's face. Ben just shakes his head. What had he just gotten himself into?

Ben reluctantly follows them outside, the two seeming to already know how they're going to go about constructing their 'human slingshot'. He watches in mild interest as Reed stretches his arms out to wrap around two trees. “Pull me back, Ben,” he says, and Ben sighs one last time before grabbing Reed's waist and backing up. He keeps going until Reed decides that it's a reasonable distance. Johnny climbs on top of Reed, laying back against the younger man.

“Ready Johnny?”

“Oh, _hell_ yeah!”

“Alright, Ben – three, two, one!”

Ben lets go of Reed, and he stares with his mouth hanging open as Johnny gets launched into the night, because _they had literally just created a human slingshot._

Reed's up ahead of him, laughing hysterically, and the glow of Johnny's flames suddenly light up in the sky, starting to move back towards them. Reed turns to Ben. “Think I can launch myself?”

“Reed, no, you can't fly like Johnny-” Ben says, watching as Reed backs himself up, keeping his feet planted firmly on the ground. He stops a few feet away from Ben, and before Ben can move forward to grab him, he lifts his feet and is gone.

Johnny lands and the two stand there and listen to Reed's whooping growing more distant. Johnny blinks. “Did he just...?”

“Yeah,” Ben answers, “he did.

“Should we go get him?”

“Probably.”

The two head off into the woods, Johnny's burning hand lighting up the area as they walk. “How far do you think he went?” Ben asks.

“Far enough,” is the answer.

They walk for at least fifteen minutes before coming across Reed, stretched across a tree branch like a cat, sound asleep. They stare at him for a moment, then Ben grasps the tree trunk firmly and shakes it hard. Reed tumbles off the branch, waking up with a yelp, and slams into the ground below.

He lays face down, sprawled out in the dirt, groaning. Johnny's doubled over, laughing so hard he can't breathe. Finally Ben picks Reed up by the back of his shirt, setting him down on unsteady feet. He looks relatively unharmed, only a few scratches and bruises, accompanied by a smudge of dirt on his cheek and a leaf in his mussed hair. Ben can't help but chuckle at his appearance, leaning forward and plucking out the leaf. Reed swats him away, clearly still upset about being knocked out of the tree.

After Johnny's laughter dies down and he wipes away the tears in his eyes, he lights the way back home. Reed insists on Ben giving him a piggyback ride, and Ben gives in fairly quickly after Reed starts whining. It's barely two minutes before he hears Reed snoring in his ear, rolling his eyes and turning his head so Johnny won't see the endearing smile adorning his rocky features.

He dumps Reed in his bed when they get back, and glances at the door before tucking him in. He's still smiling as he leaves the room.


	2. Highest High-Five

Reed's been sitting next to Ben for almost twenty minutes now, but he hasn't said a word, which is unusual because Ben knows Reed's been drinking with Johnny, and this is not his normal drunk behaviour. He's just staring at his arms with a concentrated look on his face. Finally, Ben can't take it anymore and asks, "What's up?"

"How far do you think I can stretch?" Reed inquires, looking up at Ben with a frown.

"What?"

"My arms," Reed says, holding his arms our for Ben to see, "how far do you think they can stretch?"

"Uh, I dunno. You haven't tested it?" Ben gently pushes Reed's arms back to his chest as Reed shakes his head. "Well, we can do some tests tomorrow if you want. I'm sure Sue'd like to help," Ben tells him.

"I wanna do one now."

"Reed, you're drunk. No."

"Ben," Reed insists, "I gotta know. Please?"

Memories of Reed's human slingshot resurface, and Ben promptly gets up and walks out of the room, deciding that he doesn't want to be a part of whatever Reed's planning. He ignores Reed's attempts to call him back. Ben knows he'll eventually just go find Johnny, and Johnny would be more than happy to aid Reed in whatever 'tests' he wanted to do. So it wasn't his problem.

He makes it only ten minutes before he's leaving his room and going to check on them, only because he hadn't heard a single thing - no explosions, no laughter, nothing. It was only logical to go make sure neither one of them had been killed.

He finds Sue in the lab, going through some papers. She seems to immediately know why he's there as soon as she sees him. "They're out back," she jerks a thumb towards the door, "something about the 'highest high-five', I don't know." She shakes her head and goes back to her previous task.

Ben's not entirely sure what he's expecting when he steps outside, but it definitely isn't Reed with one arm stretched up so high you had to squint to see where it ended and Johnny up in the air, rising with Reed's hand.

"What the hell are you idiots doing?"

Reed grins at him. "World's highest high-five," he declares proudly.

"You sure he's not gonna melt your hand off instead?"

"Pft, nah," Reed scoffs, "he found out how to keep one hand, uh, not on fire."

Well, Ben thinks, it's not as bad as their previous stunt. What could go wrong?

Reed's eyebrows draw together in concentration, and Ben figures he must be reaching his limit. "That's as far as I can go, Johnny!" he calls up after another minute or so. Johnny zooms down to them.

"That's pretty high, man! Over a hundred and fifty feet!"

Ben whistles. "Think that's, like, a world record?" Reed asks him.

"I don't think world records count for people like us," he teases, and Reed childishly sticks his toungue at him before looking to Johnny.

"Hurry up, my arm's getting tired," he whines, and Johnny nods and takes off into the sky.

They watch as Johnny heads straight towards Reed's hand, and when Ben assumes they've high-fived, Reed yelps, "Ow, hot!" and his arm is suddenly snapping down, smacking him in the face, and Ben thinks it looks exactly like stretching a rubber band and then letting it go.

Reed's been knocked down by the force of his own hand, and Ben blinks at him before he bursts out laughing. There's a huge, red, hand-shaped mark across his face, and he looks slightly dazed. Johnny lands, takes in Reed's appearance and knows exactly what happened, then laughs right along with Ben. Reed flips them off from the ground, which makes them laugh even harder. He makes his way to his feet, rubbing his face.

"What the hell, Johnny? I thought you said you wouldn't burn me!"

"Sorry, sorry," Johnny snorts through his laughter, "but accidents happen."

Reed flips him off one last time before trudging back into the lab, still holding his face.

When the two finally settle down, they head in, and are met by Sue hunched over a desk, giggling. As soon as he meets their eyes she lapses back into hysterics, which prompts them to start laughing again, and soon none of them can breathe, tears trailing down their face, all because of Reed and his genius ideas.

Ben thinks that maybe they should get him drunk more often.


	3. Jump Rope

“Hey, Ben, you wanna try jump roping with my arms?”

Ben looks away from the TV and stares at Reed, blinking. “…What?”

“Y'know, jump rope?” Reed makes an awkward gesture with his hands, which in no way resembles a jump rope. Ben makes a mental note to tell Johnny to stop giving Reed alcohol. He’s confused as to why Reed keeps taking him up on the offer; what ever happened to the kid who refused to drink because _ethanol kills brain cells, Ben,_ anyways?

“Not really, no,” Ben tells him, and Reed frowns.

“You really don’t know what jump rope is?”

“Not that, genius. I don’t want to play it with your _arms,_ that’s just weird.”

“Aw, c'mon! Listen, even Sue said she’d try!”

“Yeah?” Ben didn’t believe that for a second.

“Uh, well, I mean, she _will,_ once I ask her,” Reed stutters out, rubbing the back of his neck. Ben snorts. Reed’s always been a terrible liar, ever since they were kids.

“I’m okay. Have fun without me.” He turns his eyes back to whatever show he had been mindlessly watching, hoping Reed will get the hint, when the TV is suddenly blocked as the younger man stands directly in front of it. Ben growls lowly. “Really, Reed?”

“Ben, please?” Reed whines, and Ben’s starting to grow tired of it.

“Okay, if I do it, will you stop whining?”

Reed scrunches up his nose. “I don’t whine.”

“You just did.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Yes you-” Ben sighs. “Whatever, will you stop if I do it?”

“Kinda hard to stop something you don’t do in the first place,” Reed mumbles.

“Reed.”

“Fine, sure, sure, whatever you want. Just come _on_ already!” He latches onto Ben’s arm like a parasite, trying to pull him off the couch. Ben watches in amusement as Reed huffs and looks at him with expectant eyes. Ben rolls his own eyes before standing up and following Reed to the lab. Sue’s working on something at one of the desks and Johnny is playing on his phone, but he looks up and smirks when they enter as though he’d been waiting for them. Reed quickly makes his way to Sue, tapping her shoulder. She turns and raises an eyebrow.

“Wanna try jump roping with my arms?”

“Um, no?”

“Please? I already told Ben that you’d say yes.”

“What? Why would you tell him that?” She looks genuinely confused.

“So he’d say yes.”

Sue sighs and looks past Reed to Ben, who just shrugs. “Fine,” she says, and Reed grins. Johnny hops down from his stool and pockets his phone.

“So,” he says, slinging an arm around Reed’s shoulders, “what crazy stunt are we doing today, bud?”

“Jump rope,” Reed answers simply as he slips out from Johnny’s arm and holds his hands out towards Ben. “Hold my hands, Ben, and then Johnny and Sue can jump.”

Ben grumbles something under his breath but grabs Reed’s much smaller hands in his own. It feels strange, like he’s going to crush them, so he holds them as gently as he can.

“Aw!” Sue coos.

“You guys are adorable,” Johnny adds. Reed flushes, and Ben’s sure he would too if he were able.

“Shut up,” Reed tells them, causing them to laugh, as he takes a few steps back, stretching his arms until there’s enough room for both Sue and Johnny to jump at the same time. “Ready?”

“Sure,” Johnny says and Sue shrugs and joins him in position. Reed and Ben swing Reed’s arms, and the two Storms hop over them. Reed laughs as he watches, entertained.

“I cannot _believe_ I am seriously jump roping with Reed’s arms,” Sue exclaims, giggling as she joins hands with Johnny to time their jumps.

Reed looks insanely proud that he’s thought up the idea of _jump roping with his own freaking arms,_ though as he meets Ben’s gaze, dark eyes twinkling with laughter, Ben can’t help but smile back and laugh right along with the three of them, thinking somewhere in the back of his mind that Reed is absolutely endearing, if not annoying, when he’s drunk.

Maybe Johnny’s got the right idea, giving Reed so much alcohol.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point I'm kinda running out of ideas so please feel free to start throwing some suggestions around! Also I'd like to thank everyone that commented, love you guys!


End file.
